The present invention relates to education and more particularly to a method of and audio/visual apparatus for training and testing pedestrians, especially children, in the safe transit of roadways, intersections, crosswalks and the like.
One of the most appalling statistics arising from the operation of motor vehicles in this country is the number of pedestrians, particularly young children, who are killed or seriously and permanently injured by motor vehicles as they cross roadways and street intersections. One of the underlying causes for this unfortunate situation is the inadequacy of pedestrian safety training and testing programs and devices presently in use and, in some cases, the total absence of pedestrian safety training for children. Although the prior art is replete with methods and apparatus for training and testing operators of motor vehicles, it is notably deficient in effective methods and apparatus for performing training and testing of pedestrians.
A search of the prior art failed to uncover any prior art reference which discloses the pedestrian training and testing method and apparatus of the present invention. Several prior art patents were uncovered which disclose driver training apparatus or other audio/visual apparatus including elements similar to those of the apparatus of the present invention and the following is a listing of such prior art patents;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,205,592
U.S. Pat. No. 3,342,103
U.S. Pat. No. 3,488,861
U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,364
In addition to the above-listed patents, the aforesaid prior art search uncovered an article appearing in the Washington Post on Thursday, Dec. 7, 1939, entitled "Main Intersection of Safety Town." This article relates to pedestrian training conducted under the auspices of the Automobile Association of America and describes a training program involving the use of a miniature street intersection, standard stop-and-go signals and toy, child-propelled automobiles, in conjuction with youth safety patrols, for staging a pedestrian and motor vehicle driver safety demonstration at an elementary school in Washington, D.C. Insofar as known, this type of "safety town" equipment and training procedure and variations of the same constitute the basis of the prior art pedestrian training for children.
While such programs are certainly useful and desirable in the training of youthful pedestrians, the equipment used for this type of training requires a substantial deployment area and is not readily transported from place to place. Moreover, it is often not feasible for individual schools and other organizations to purchase and store the equipment necessary to conduct "safety town" training because of the relatively large monetary investment involved, the lengthy assembly and disassembly time required, as well as the need to provide substantial storage area for the equipment when it is not in use.
A further and particularly significant disadvantage of the prior art "safety town" is the fact that the training is conducted under the control of both traffic signals and safety patrols and, thus, does not provide a training environment for the traffic situations most often encountered by young pedestrians, such as completely uncontrolled intersections and residential streets in the child's neighborhood, for example.
As is well known, the most effective training methods, especially for children, involve repetitive and continuous reinforcement of a particular behavior pattern. In pedestrian safety training of children, it is almost essential to success that virtually instinctive behavior patterns are developed in the children and it is to this end that the present invention was conceived.